z32 Battery drain overnight

[snowfox]

So I was working on the interior of my z32 (1993) and took everything from center console to the door panels out. but overnight the battery became flat. and this happened twice already and I'm beginning to wonder if I somehow messed up the wiring. All I did was unplug the switches. Im confident its not the alternator.

[elecfus]

you must disconnect the battery before performing any electrical work. especially if you're working anywhere near an airbag. I know america is fairly relaxed but an airbag event in australia is enough to make a car a statutory writeoff in australia. because they're unroadworthy if they dont work and full set of trim and airbags can cost thousands.

a common problem on the z32 is the factory car alarm. it can and should be removed because when it fails it has a tendency to go off randomly. which leads people to cut the siren wiring then the lights just flash all night when a cat decides to sleep on it. its not an immobiliser, the wires for the siren are easily accessible and it can be disabled easily by just unplugging it so im not really sure why it was ever included in the first place.

the alarm relies on the door sensors to know if the doors have been opened. I think it has a vibration sensor, boot and door sensors as triggers. so what might be happening is that its seeing the doors are hanging open and going off. or a positive is shorting to ground. you can test it by using a multimeter to test the resistance between ground and the disconnected positive terminal. it should be out of range or in the order of megaohms.